Chosen Solution
Having a really weird issue with this iPad Air that I’m working on. It will only take a charge if I plug it in while the device is turned off first. When the iPad is on and I plug it in, it doesn’t say it is charging and pulls 0.01A (I have a USB Current meter similar to this one.) However, when I turn the device off and then plug in the lightning cable, it turns on, says it charging, and pulls ~2A. Another weird thing, the iPad seems to power the USB current meter when I unplug it from the brick. So it seems like current is flowing out of the iPad instead of in. Also when I do get it to charge and I unplug the power brick from the wall, the iPad still says it is charging. Any ideas what could be the issue? I was thinking either the dock or the board.
The dock is the first thing I would go after. Its shorting somewhere and hopefully that fixes it. If not, then its probably the power IC. But the dock is cheap and easy enough to do, so give that a shot first.
